


Day 5- Alternate Universe

by TheEruditeGrammacist



Series: Erudite's Bumbleby Week 2018 [5]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Bumbleby Week 2018, Children, F/F, Mechanic Yang Xiao Long, Single Mom Blake Belladonna, Single Parents, mechanic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-04
Updated: 2018-05-04
Packaged: 2019-05-02 09:26:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14541687
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheEruditeGrammacist/pseuds/TheEruditeGrammacist
Summary: Blake's car breaks down, stranding her and her daughter. Thankfully, she can call a nearby mechanic for a tow truck. Only trouble? That mechanic happens to be far more attractive than Blake can handle.





	Day 5- Alternate Universe

**Author's Note:**

> Based on a comic I saw on tumblr. Unfortunately, I couldn't find it again, so if anyone knows it and provides a link then I'll stick it  here. (thanks to Darnskippytootin for finding it for me)

“Oh gods, please no.”

The engine, of course, didn’t listen to Blake’s protest, and gave a feeble cough as it died. Blake desperately tried turning the ignition again, but the car was dead. Blake put her face in her hands. “Why?” she asked no one in particular.

“Mama?” a voice piped up from behind her. Blake turned to see her small 6-year-old, Faye, leaning forward in her just-too-small car seat. “Is the car okay?”

“No, sweetie. It is not okay.” Blake said, before groaning in frustration. She’d pulled over to the side of the road when smoke had started to issue from under the hood, and just in time; the engine had given out almost the moment she stopped. 

“Stay here, Faye. I’m going to go take a look at it.” Blake said, unbuckling her seatbelt and stepping out of the car and into the summer’s sweltering heat. She approached the hood and pried it open (the latch hadn’t worked properly in since she'd bought the car) and stared hopelessly into the engine. With absolutely no knowledge of how a car worked, she couldn’t fathom how to fix it, or even what was wrong. But she definitely could not afford the extra expense of a trip to a mechanic. Unfortunately, it seemed like the alternative would be buying a completely new car, since she had  _ no  _ idea what she was doing. 

Time to bite the bullet. She’d lost so much in the divorce with Adam, and Faunus were already badly low-income to begin with. But if she didn’t have a car, she didn’t have a job at all.

She flipped open her phone, grit her teeth, and dialed.

The other end picked up after three rings. A calm voice with a just distinguishable East- Mistralean accent spoke.

_ “Hello, this is Sun Dragon Auto Care, Lie Ren speaking. How may I be of service?” _

“Um, hi. My car broke down, and my daughter and I are stranded. Do you have a tow truck?”

_ “We most certainly do,”  _ the voice responded.  _ “What is your location? We’ll send someone over.” _

“We are…” Blake looked around for a street sign. “On Rice Street, about halfway between Cherry and Sage.”

_ “Got it. We can have someone there in about,” _ a pause,  _ “Ten minutes or so. Does that sound good?” _

“Sounds great, thank you,” Blake said. She hung up and went to get back in the car to wait.

“It’s hot,” Faye complained, squirming a little. Blake nodded in agreement. She tried to roll down the window, but without ignition, that didn’t work either. She reached back and popped open the door on Faye’s left. 

“That better?” she asked. Faye nodded.

“Little bit,” she said. Blake smiled at her. 

“We’ve got a few minutes before the tow truck gets here, sweetie.”  She reached back and brushed her daughter’s hair back behind the hyena ears that marked her as a Faunus. “Make yourself comfortable.”

 

-

 

A yellow and orange truck pulled up, as promised, approximately ten minutes later. A woman with bright orange hair and a massive grin poked her head out.

“Heya!” she said happily. “I’m Nora, nice to meet you!” She opened the door and quite literally hopped out. Blake opened her door and stepped out, moving to shake hands with the woman. Nora grasped her hand, shaking enthusiastically.

“Blake Belladonna,” Blake said, once she had recovered her hand. “And back there is Faye.”

“Hi!” Faye chirped. 

“Hey there, Faye!” Nora said, giving her a wave. “Well, then Miss Belladonna,” she said, turning back to Blake, “Let’s get you hooked up and out of here!”

“Can I ride in the car as we go?” Faye asked as Blake unbuckled her. 

“No,” Blake said, eyes narrowed.

Nora laughed. “Yeah, and anyway, Yang says we aren’t ‘legally allowed’ to ride in the cars while they’re being towed.” She even fully made air quotes around “legally allowed.”

“Um,” Blake said, but Nora interrupted.

“Come on! Hop in the truck!” she grabbed the tow cable and, ignoring the handle, unwound the heavy cable with sheer force and pulled it toward Blake’s car.

Not sure whether to be impressed or intimidated, Blake picked Faye up and placed her in Nora’s backseat, then opened the passenger side door to sit in herself.

A few moments later, Nora opened the driver’s side door and hopped in. “And off we go!”

 

-

 

They arrived safely at the auto shop (Nora was not as careless of a driver as her personality suggested) and Nora pulled to a stop.

“We’re here!” she announced, parking the truck and hopping out. 

Blake (with far more deliberation) got out of the truck, stepping down from its height. She opened the door and lifted Faye down to the ground. 

“Hold my hand in the parking lot, Faye,” Blake reminded her, and after Faye complied, the two of them entered the shop’s blessedly air-conditioned office. 

A man in green with very long hair looked up from behind the desk. “Hello, there,” he said. Blake recognized his voice from the phone. “You would be Blake, then?”

“Yes, hi,” Blake said. She bit her lip nervously, already preparing for when she would have to negotiate the price for this. She hadn’t seen one Faunus who worked here, and all-human establishments tended to have a much higher chance to be racist. They weren’t eyeing her and her daughter with scorn, though, and they weren’t outright refusing to serve her, so while Blake was hopeful, she also knew from experience that it was more practical to expect the worst.

The shop’s back door opened, and a tall blonde woman in a tank top and jumpsuit, its top half tied around her waist, entered. Blake’s throat went dry; the woman was gorgeous. Unconsciously, she tightened her grip on Faye’s hand, before realizing what she was doing and relaxing her grip lest she crush her daughter's hand.

“Ren, where are the spark plugs?” the woman asked, seemingly not noticing Blake or Faye. She opened a closet and looked around in it. “The car Nora just brought in has horrible ones. Whoever sold that car was either incompetent or deliberately trying to screw over their buyer.”

“Top shelf, box labeled ‘random car parts Yang says are important,’” Ren said, returning his gaze to what he was working on.

The woman groaned, pulling a box down from the top shelf. “Gods, remind me,  _ why _ do we let Nora do inventory?”

“Because neither of us wants to,” Ren said. The woman shrugged.

“Fair enough,” she said, drawing an armful of items from the box. She turned around. Her eyebrows shot up upon seeing Blake and Faye.

“He-llooo!” she said, giving Blake once-over. Her eyes darted to Faye, then back to Blake. Blake swallowed fiercely. “So that’s your car out there?”

“It is,” Blake said. The woman shook her head.

“Shame. Decent enough car, but the engine’s practically gutted. It looks almost like someone yanked out all the removable parts and replaced them with stand-ins.” She shrugged. “It’s functional, I guess, and way cheaper. But it doesn’t last long. Case in point,” she gestured toward the back door. “Been about eight or nine months  since you bought it?”

“Yes, almost nine,” Blake said.

“I could tell.” said the woman. “Well, it’s an easy fix, so don’t worry. I’ll have you back on your way within the hour.”

Blake breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Hey, no problem. I’m Yang, by the way. Yang Xiao Long.” the woman said, shifting what she was holding to shake hands with Blake.

“Blake Belladonna,” Blake replied, letting her hand linger in Yang’s grasp maybe a little bit longer than what was strictly necessary. “And this is my daughter Faye.”

“Hi!” Faye said. Yang dropped to one knee, holding out a hand for Faye to shake as well. Faye giggled, shaking her hand. She held up her other hand to her mouth and whispered conspiratorially, “My mommy thinks you’re pretty.”

“Faye!” Blake blushed furiously, but Yang only laughed. 

“Well, you can tell your mommy that I happen to think she’s very pretty as well,” she said, letting go of Faye’s hand and straightening up. She waved goodbye and retreated through the back door.

Blake moved to sit down in a chair in the waiting area, failing to stop the smile from spreading across her face. Faye toddled up beside her. 

“Mommy?” Faye asked, tugging on Blake’s sleeve. Blake turned.

“What is it, sweetie?” she asked.

Faye leaned in, holding up her hand to her mouth again. “She says she thinks you’re pretty, too.”

Blake laughed, closing her eyes and tilting her head against the wall. “Thank you, Faye. I heard.”

 

-

 

Yang emerged from under Blake’s car, wiping some oil from her forehead in a way that in  _ no  _ way did Blake think looked hot. 

“Alright, then. You’re all set,” she said, standing up and going over to where Blake had positioned herself about thirty minutes into the work, after Faye expressed a desire to go into the garage. Yang hadn’t complained about her watching, so she hadn’t moved. 

Faye, meanwhile, had somehow made friends with Nora, and was currently hanging off her arm. Faye was a little bit small for her age, but even still, she was plenty hefty, and yet Nora lifted her like she weighed nothing. It was pretty cute to watch.

That is, she  _ tried  _ to keep an eye on her child, but she kept getting distracted by Yang working. The sheen of sweat against her skin, the ponytail she used to keep her hair at bay as she worked sticking to her back, her  _ top _ occasionally sticking to her skin, all of it had Blake hypnotized. 

She hadn’t gotten any since the divorce two years before, and even then, Adam had never been considerate in bed. Ever. She’d been responsible for her own orgasms since she started dating him. She felt she was entitled to a bit of harmless lusting over someone she’d never see again.

“That soon?” Blake asked, shaking herself out of her reverie. Yang nodded.

“Your spark plugs were trashed and your alternator was shot. And your belts were cracked all to hell, so I took care of that. And I went ahead and replaced your oil while I was in there, you would’ve needed that in a bit. Small fixes, but a lot of them. Not that hard.”

Blake bit her lip nervously. While she appreciated the extra effort, the oil change was just another thing she’d have to pay Yang for.

Time to bite the bullet. “So, what do I owe you after all this?” she asked.

“Absolutely nothing,” Yang replied.

Blake stared at her, blinking a few times. Eventually, she found enough mental capacity to manage to grunt, “Eh?”

Yang shrugged. “You’re a Faunus, and you have a kid but no wedding ring. Those three things combined means I’m guessing you don’t have much money to spare, right?” Blake nodded mutely. “So, consider this on the house.”

Blake continued to stare at her. “Eh?” she said.

“And… judging by your response to this, I’m going to  _ also _ assume that you don’t see a whole lot of kindness in your day-to-day life. Think of this as me trying to help you out with both,” Yang said, a small smile gracing her lips.

Blake stared at her in silence, continuing to blink dumbly, before surging forward and wrapping her arms around Yang before her rational brain could remind her that Yang was essentially a stranger. An admittedly very attractive, kind, godsend of a stranger, but still someone who may not be comfortable with random women hugging her. But Yang gripped her back, letting her break down in her arms. 

Yang smelled of engine and oil and sweat, but Blake found it somehow appealing. She took deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself down (and maybe a bit of selfishness). Once she could think again, she forced herself to pull back from Yang’s arms. 

“You good now?” Yang asked. 

“I… yes, I just… thank you, thank you  _ so  _ much,” Blake said, trying to pour as much gratitude into her words as she could. “Is there  _ anything _ I can ever do to pay you back?”

Yang shrugged. “Well, I have it on somewhat good authority,” she cast a glance back at Faye, who was now riding on Nora’s shoulders, “That you think I’m ‘pretty.’ So how about you let me ask you to dinner and we’ll call it even?”

“You… what?” Blake asked, eyes wide. 

“I mean, I meant it earlier when I said I thought you were pretty too.” Yang rubbed the back of her neck, looking a bit nervous now. “And I mean, you don’t have to say yes if you don’t want to, I’m not trying to extort a date out of you. I still won’t charge you if you say no, I just-...”

“Yang,” Blake cut her off, a smile spreading wide across her face. “I would love to go to dinner with you.”

“You would?” Yang asked, eyes lighting up. 

“I would,” Blake confirmed. Yang grinned broadly.

“You free Saturday? Say, seven-ish? I know a great place, owned by a friend of mine. I’ll text you the address, what’s your number?” Yang asked. Blake fished her phone from her shorts and unlocked it, handing it silently to Yang. As Yang punched her info into Blake’s phone, Blake gazed at her daughter.

For the first time in years, she dared allow herself to hope.

**Author's Note:**

> For those who haven't seen the WoR episode about Faunus, here's a crash course in hereditary Faunus traits. Faunus plus Same Animal Faunus (e.g., Ghira plus Kali, both cats) equals same animal Faunus (hence, Blake, also a cat). Likewise, Human plus Faunus (e.g., Yang plus Blake) equals same animal Faunus as the Faunus parent (Like Yin from last year's Bumbleby Week.) However, Faunus plus Different Animal Faunus (e.g., Blake plus Adam) yields "a complete roll of the dice. For all you know, you could be cleaning up your child's shedded snake skin." Hence, Faye here is a hyena Faunus.


End file.
